Monday, September 3, 2007

Massachusetts Pizza Kitchen

Labor Day means grilling with friends, and this year I managed to commandeer the menu with something I've wanted to try for a long time - grilled pizza.

I don't have my own grill, and it's rare that I have the wherewithal to cart a whole slew of ingredients over to someone else's house, but being that it was a holiday, I went all out. Assuming that the grilling of the dough would work, I prepared 6 different sets of toppings - because I'm crazy. There was a lot of prep work to this, but only because there were 6 different kinds - if there had only been 1 or 2, it would have been a cinch.

My roommate did all the actual grilling as I hovered and directed. We used Trader Joe's packaged pizza dough for ease - 1 bag of wheat dough and 2 of herb & garlic. Each dough was halved and then shaped to form the 6 pies. Each dough was brushed with olive oil, then placed oil side down on the grill for about 5 minutes. He also brushed the grill itself with plenty of olive oil to prevent sticking, and he says this was vitally important.

Once they were half-cooked and off the grill, I topped the cooked side with the toppings before the pizza was transfered back to the grill. Luckily, with the two upper grill racks, there was room enough for all 6 pizzas to be on at once. We rotated the pizzas around to make sure they all got evenly cooked, and the top was closed for a few minutes to allow the heat to really bake the pizzas.

I was so happy with how these turned out, and they were surprisingly easy to put together. I know this will show up again next summer, and I'll be spreading the love of grilled pizza to whatever barbeques I go to.

10 comments:

This is so great! I have longed to make grilled pizzas, but alas, don't have a que either. I will keep in mind, when I do try it, your trick of grilling one side, then take it off, and grill the other side with the toppings. Your toppings were varied and inventive as well. I'm sure whoever had the pleasure of being near the party, would really have enjoyed all the flavors. Smart thinkin' on the TJs dough too. Gotta make it easy on yourself when you can. Thanks for the info and posting it on Tastespotting, so I could find it.www.figswithbri.com

What a wicked fun idea for a party - to provide a variety of grilled crusts and the party attendees bring their own toppings. Outdoor pizza party! Refreshing break from the typical BBQ. Now all I need is a grill...

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